SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--OCP Summit – Accton Technology Corporation, the leading developer and manufacturer of open network switches, today announced that it will open source through the Open Compute Project (OCP) two new data center switch designs— the industry’s first open design of a 100 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) switch to enable continued capacity growth of web-scale infrastructures, and a cost optimized 40GbE switch design for deployment of current open infrastructures based on 10GbE and 40GbE. Accton’s subsidiary, Edge-Core Networks, will market products implementing these designs as part of its open network switch product line that allows data center operators to deploy cost-effective and flexible public and private cloud infrastructures.
“Last year, Accton submitted the design of a 10GbE top-of-rack switch to OCP, which became the first network design fully approved by OCP,” said Frank Frankovsky, President and Chairman of Open Compute Project Foundation. “We welcome Accton’s additional contributions of the 40GbE and 100GbE switch designs, and its leadership work within the OCP network community on conformance and interoperability testing, which are important steps to make open switching solutions more broadly deployable by customers.”
Edge-Core announced today the Wedge-16X top-of-rack switch, the first commercial product offering of the Wedge design that Facebook contributed to OCP. The Wedge16-X with sixteen 40GbE QSFP+ ports will be manufactured by Accton and available from Edge-Core as a bare-metal switch in Q2, the industry’s first network product designed specifically for web-scale infrastructures by a data center operator.
“Cloud data centers require open network infrastructure solutions that scale to meet application requirements, lower equipment costs through choice of standard switch hardware, and increase the flexibility and pace of innovation through a broad choice of NOS and SDN software platforms,” said George Tchaparian, CEO, Edge-Core Networks, and GM Data Center Networks, Accton Technology. “Accton’s contributions of next-generation switch designs to OCP and our collaboration with Facebook for design validation and manufacturing of Wedge, plus Edge-Core’s open network product line and work with operators, software partners, integrator partners, and industry organizations all demonstrate our commitment to make open networking benefits a reality for more and more customers.”
Accton and EdgeCore Leadership in Open Network Ecosystem
Accton and Edge-Core collaborate with partners and industry organizations to make open, disaggregated network solutions more easily validated and deployed by web-scale, enterprise and telecom organizations. Edge-Core announced today the following initiatives that validate Edge-Core switches for interoperability, ease of installation, and support with leading Network Operating System (NOS), SDN software, optical transceiver and cabling options:
- Four Edge-Core data center switches, the most in the industry, have been certified as compliant with the OCP Open Network Install Environment (ONIE) requirements by the UTSA OCP Certification and Solution Laboratory. ONIE certification assures customers of a smooth out-of-box experience with Edge-Core bare-metal switches, including installation of compatible NOS software with the ONIE universal installer.
- Edge-Core has ported Open Network Linux (ONL) to its bare-metal switches. Contributed to OCP by Big Switch Networks®, ONL is now an OCP-approved reference NOS providing a standard Linux environment and basic set of NOS functions including an OpenFlow agent and basic L3 routing. The availability of ONL on Edge-Core switches through the Open Network Linux repository provides a common software platform for innovation by customers, software partners, and the open network community.
- Edge-Core implemented the ACPI Platform Description (APD) framework on its AS6712-32X 40GbE switch in collaboration with Cumulus Networks®, as the industry’s first pilot implementation of APD. Cumulus Networks has contributed ADP to OCP, as a standard structure for describing switch hardware to NOS software, modeled after the ACPI specification successfully for device configuration on bare-metal servers. Edge-Core will implement APD on all its future switches, which will accelerate the porting and availability of additional NOS and application software offerings on Edge-Core bare-metal switches.
- Edge-Core has joined the new open network interoperability initiative of The University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL) which has begun interoperability testing of optical transceivers and cables with bare-metal switches running independent NOS software. Edge-Core is the only switch hardware vendor among the charter members, joining Finisar® Corporation, Avago Technologies, Amphenol Corporation, Cumulus Networks, and Big Switch Networks to support UNH-IOL’s development of independent data required to validate the interoperability of the open data center network fabric.
Edge-Core Networks Delivers Robust Open Network Solutions
Edge-Core’s data center switches support leading NOS options, including Switch Light OS™ from Big Switch Networks, Broadcom® ICOS, Cumulus® Linux®, and Pica8® PicOSTM. Edge-Core’s full portfolio of open network solutions is available through channel partners worldwide, including leading OCP Solution Providers such as AMAX, Hyve Solutions, and ITOCHU Techno-Solutions Corporation.
Edge-Core is a sponsor of the OCP Summit in San Jose on March 10-11, and will be exhibiting Accton’s new switch design contributions to OCP as part of Edge-Core’s portfolio of data center switches. Edge-Core will also be exhibiting at Cloud Expo Europe in London on March 11-12.
Accton Switch Design Contributions to OCP
OCP fully approved in October the Accton submission of a 10GbE TOR switch— the Edge-Core AS5712-54X— the first network design approved by OCP. Accton is contributing new hardware designs to OCP of the following 40GbE and 100GbE open network switches:
- Edge-Core AS7700-32X Series. The switches are next-generation 100GbE hardware designs for TOR and spine network deployments. The AS7700-32X switches have thirty-two QSFP28 ports in a 1U form factor, with each port supporting 100GbE, 2x50GbE, 40GbE, 4x25GbE or 4x10GbE connections through appropriate breakout cables. The AS7710-32X and AS7712-32X switches are based on Broadcom StrataXGS® Tomahawk™ Switch Series silicon, with CPU daughter modules based on the FreescaleTM T2080 processor or IntelTM BW-DE processor, respectively.
- Edge-Core AS6700-32X Series. The switches are cost-optimized 40GbE hardware designs for volume TOR or spine deployments, with thirty-two QSFP+ ports in a 1U form factor. Each port supports 40GbE or 4x10GbE connections through breakout cables. The AS6710-32 and AS6712-32X switches are designed with Broadcom StrataXGS® Trident II Ethernet Switch silicon, with CPU daughter modules based on the Freescale P2041 processor or Intel Atom® C2538 processor, respectively.
Supporting Quotes
“Open networking is a significant component in increasing business
agility while driving down costs when combined with OCP infrastructure.
We are very excited about Accton’s and EdgeCore’s recent switch
contributions and their potential impact to operating and scaling
large-scale data centers efficiently.” —
Julia Shih, Director of
Strategic Alliance, AMAX
"We're excited to see the rate that Accton is bringing new switch
hardware to the Open Compute Project and their support of the open
source movement with Open Network Linux— it's proof that the open model
is greasing the skids for bringing networking innovation to customers." —
Rob
Sherwood, CTO, Big Switch Networks
“Broadcom welcomes the contributions to the Open Compute Project of two
new switch designs by Accton, which leverage the market-leading
performance and functionality of the StrataXGS® Trident II and Tomahawk™
Switch Series. These open networking platforms give customers greater
choice in deploying data center fabrics migrating from 10GbE to 40GbE to
100GbE.” —
Eli Karpilovski, Director of Product Marketing, Broadcom
Corporation
“The Accton contribution of hardware designs to OCP for 10G, 40G and
100G switches furthers the goals of the open compute movement. By
enabling a network technology stack that includes open hardware and an
open operating system such as Cumulus Linux, Accton is fueling the
proliferation of data center networking solutions that provide customers
with greater choice and vastly improved economics." —
Reza
Malekzadeh, VP of Business, Cumulus Networks
About Accton Technology
Accton Technology is a global premier provider of networking and communications solutions for top tier networking, computer, and telecommunications vendors. Leveraging its advanced hardware engineering, software applications and system design capability, Accton collaborates with its strategic partners to architect, develop and manufacture innovative, leading-edge network products. Accton’s evolving core technology and its highly-qualified global workforce enable it to deliver superior distributed virtual network solutions that are affordable and robust. For more information about Accton and its subsidiaries, please visit www.accton.com.
About Edge-Core Networks
Edge-Core Networks is a wholly owned subsidiary of Accton Technology Corporation. Edge-Core delivers network solutions through channel partners worldwide that keep information moving and connections strong for SMB, enterprise, data center, and service provider customers. For more information, visit www.Edge-Core.com.
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